


my empty soul is ringing with the sound of your voice

by fairyScorpicus



Series: 100 ways to say I love you [9]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Oh wait, Precious Peter Parker, Tony Stark Needs Sleep, Tony Stark is a Good Dad, Voicemails, friday who programmed you to sass tony, the irondad discord is too powerful, tony? sleep through the night? you wish
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-21
Updated: 2021-01-07
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:48:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,190
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23238718
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fairyScorpicus/pseuds/fairyScorpicus
Summary: “I noticed.”--- 5 Times Tony listened to Peter's voicemails... and 1 Time He Didn't----------------------------------------------------------"A voicemail?" Tony glanced up to the nearest speaker in the ceiling automatically in his incredulity. "Do I even have any voicemails? Doesn't Pepper take of those?""Peter Parker leaves quite a few voicemails for Happy, which are currently unread," FRIDAY adds, and Tony smiles despite himself."Did Happy put you up to this?"
Relationships: Friday & Tony Stark, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Series: 100 ways to say I love you [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1527095
Comments: 19
Kudos: 113





	1. My mind is as empty as my soul, darling

**Author's Note:**

  * For [S0lstice](https://archiveofourown.org/users/S0lstice/gifts), [FerretShark](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FerretShark/gifts), [coconutknightshade](https://archiveofourown.org/users/coconutknightshade/gifts).



1.

Tony pressed his head against his glossy worktable. He couldn't sleep, so he went down to the lab, except he liked to play music while he worked, except the music gave him a headache, so he would try to sleep it off, except he couldn't, so he would head down to the lab again. It was a cycle, redundant to the point of physical agony.

"I need to listen to something," he complained to no one in particular as he heaved a dramatic sigh. It only made him feel marginally better. The moment was then ruined by FRIDAY.

"Would you like to listen to something other than music?" The AI suggested. Tony raised an eyebrow in contemplation. It seemed like a good idea, but...

"What? It can't a video unless its a movie I know by heart." Unbidden, his mind conjured up trusty movie names: Mamma Mia, The Hobbit, all the Star Trek and Star Wars movies, The Princess Bride-

"Perhaps an audiobook, or-"

"An audiobook?" Tony scoffed. "Do I look like a nerd to you?" The Wizard of Oz, his brain continued. The Sound of Music, the Goonies-

"Or a voicemail?" FRIDAY continued, and did Tony program that faint tone of annoyance? Probably.

"A voicemail?" Tony glanced up to the nearest speaker in the ceiling automatically in his incredulity. "Do I even have any voicemails? Doesn't Pepper take of those?"

"Peter Parker leaves quite a few voicemails for Happy, which are currently unread," FRIDAY adds, and Tony smiles despite himself.

"Did Happy put you up to this?" he demands as he pushes his chair back. He stretches, hearing his back crack. "Alright, let's give it a try."

FRIDAY obediently pulls the first voicemail up. The timestamp reveals that the voicemail was sent over a month ago; about two weeks after the fight at the airport. Tony grimaces despite himself and pushes the memories away.

"Hey, Happy!" Peter's voice fills the room. "It's me again, Peter Parker, you know, Spiderman?" Tony snorts. How many Peter Parkers does he think Happy knows?

"I'm just checking in. Today I stopped a bike theft, and I gave an old lady some directions and then she bought me a churro, it was great. There was this cat that got stuck in a tree, but I got it out. His name was Buttercup and he didn't even scratch me! It was great. He was so fluffy..." the kid's voice trails off, clearly reminiscing, and Tony smiles. He turns back to his work and picks up a screwdriver, letting the sound wash over him.

He works through the night, the lab quiet except for the sounds of Dum-E and U's chirping and the ramble of one excitable teenager. If FRIDAY pulls up the voicemails the next time Tony has a headache, well, no one needs to know.


	2. and by empty i mean as loud as can be

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> taking place during spiderman homecoming, right after peter first encounters the Vulture, if it wasn't clear enough.

2.

The second time Tony asked FRIDAY to play Peter's voicemails, he was paying a bit more attention. He arrived home from India and headed straight for his lab.

"Reckless kid," he muttered frantically, gesturing at FRIDAY to start the audio. "Could've gotten hurt."

Peter was lucky that Tony could send a suit over to Peter's location so quickly. Without Tony, Peter would've drowned. Tony cringed, tense and tired and weary. It wouldn't do to focus on the what-ifs, but Tony knew he would later that evening, brainstorming more ways to keep the Spider-Kid safe.

"Play the most recent one," Tony barked. He hadn't heard of any flying mechanical bird people selling alien weapons before he had dragged Peter out of the lake, but one had attacked Peter and now he had to know if Peter had encountered the man before.

"Keep an ear out for any vulture people," Tony informed FRIDAY, unable to resist pulling up schematics for a better parachute. He scanned them, looking for ways to improve it. Maybe sensors where the parachute doesn't deploy if his back is facing the ground, so Peter won't get caught in the parachute next time?

"Will do, boss," FRIDAY confirmed, and the voicemails began.

"Hey Happy, its Peter again. Today was pretty uneventful, but some guy asked me to do a flip and a hot dog vendor gave me a free hot dog. He was pretty weird, but also friendly! His name was Stan and he said I could come by anytime for more free hot dogs..."

"Shouldn't take food from strangers," Tony grumbled half-heartedly as he also considered adding a second parachute to the Spider-Man suit, in the front, if Peter's going to fall back first towards the ground. Just in case.

"...one of my classmates shouted at me as I swung past them today. It turns out my high school has a lot of spider-man fans. Of course, they don't know it's me. They took a selfie with me. Can you believe that? Someone wanted a selfie with me! And then this guy tried to break into a car, so I webbed his hand to the car door..."

As the minutes ticked by, Tony found himself slowly relaxing as the happy, cheerful tones of the kid washed over him. Peter was safe. Peter was happy. Tony sighed. He blinked slowly.

"'M still mad at m'kid, FRI," He laid his head against the table for a short reprieve.

"Of course, boss," FRIDAY assured.

"'M gonna yell at him," Tony mumbled, closing his eyes. Just for a moment of course, then he'll get back to work.

"Don't lemme fall-" He interrupted himself, yawning hugely. "Mmm. Sleep."

"Of course boss," FRIDAY said softly, no small amount of amusement in her voice.


	3. the tempest inside, the eye of the storm

The kid crashed his plane. No, the kid saved his plane. By crashing it. Well, it was already falling. He just controlled the descent. 

Tony shook his head. This wasn't the point, the point was that the kid was ON the plane, on the OUTSIDE of the plane, on the outside of a CRASHING plane, on the outside of a crashing plane fighting a SUPERVILLAIN, WEARING PYJAMAS.

Tony watched through cameras as Happy navigated the fiery mess on the beach. His mind whirled, worried. _Don't be dead, don't be dead, my kid can't be dead, oh god what If he's injured? I shouldn't have taken the suit away, I've hurt my kid, this is my fault, my kid is out there somewhere dying, my-_

"Not my kid," he muttered out loud, quiet yet forceful. "And he's not dying either."

"What?" Happy asked, and Tony grimaced.

"Nothing. Let me know if you see any sign of Spider-Man." He spoke quickly.

He grimaced and ran his hand through his hair. He couldn't sit there and do nothing! He hadn't found any voicemails about the Vulture from Peter, so when Happy called to inform him that his plane had crashed, it had been quite a surprise.

And then he opened up the cameras on the plane and given himself a heart attack. Because Peter had been there, fighting the Vulture.

_The moment I find out who that bastard is, I'm going to make him wish he was never born!_

"Hey Boss," Happy's voice cuts him out of his thoughts. "I've got some voicemails from Peter and some kid claiming to be Peter's friend."

"Send them over to me," Tony orders, pulling them onto his screen as they arrive. He starts with the first ones, from Peter's friend- Ted?- but the first call is actually Peter using his friend's phone.

"Happy!" Peter shouts the moment the recording begins, his voice urgent. "Tell Mr. Stark I know who the Vulture is, and I know that he's going to take down the plane tonight! Please pick up! The Vulture's name is Adrian Toomes! Tell Mr. Stark to call me, we gotta take him down, there's no time!" The voicemail ends as abruptly as it started.

The next two voicemails are roughly the same.

"You gotta get Mr. Stark! Now!"

Then the voicemails switch to Peter's friend.

"Oh my god, this is so cool, uh, I'm texting you the address to the warehouse that Peter's going to catch the Vulture out, hey Mr. Happy, can I get an autograph from Mr. Stark-?"

Tony stops the voicemail. He doesn't know why, but the voice grates at him. It's not Peter.

The next voicemail from Peter is half an hour later and there are a lot of background sounds.

"Hey Happy? I caught him. We're on the beach, at Coney Island. Can you come pick him up? Thanks." He sounds tired and defeated and Tony frowns and he closes the last voicemail.

He resolves to try and talk to the kid tomorrow. Make sure he's alright.


	4. the savior of this little boat

Anyone who knew Tony Stark would know that superheroes are not free from nightmares.

it was late at night, or perhaps early in the morning, when Tony sat up, gasping, chest heaving and he fought to calm himself down from yet another nightmare. It was the fourth one this week, a frequency of nightmares that Tony was unfortunately used to. But it didn't help him slow his heartrate or stop feeling terrified when he awoke from them.

"You okay, Tony?" Pepper mumbled into her pillow, half-asleep.

"Everything's fine," Tony managed, getting his breathing back into control. he felt guilty for waking her up, but a closer look showed she was already back to sleep.

But Tony wasn't.

With a sigh, he sat up and headed to the living room. He was exhausted, far too tired to go to the lab. He hoped that watching a movie or something would send him back to sleep.

But as he sat on the couch, he realized he had no idea what to watch.

"If I could make a suggestion, Boss?" F.R.I.D.A.Y. asked, and Tony waved a hand lazily, gesturing for the A.I to go ahead.

"Hey Mr. Stark," A voice started, and Tony startled as he glanced for the owner of the voice. Except the speaker continued and Tony realized what it was: Another one of Peter's voicemails.

"You could have given me some warning," He complained, even as he relaxed into his seat. His A.I. didn't even bother to give a response.

"Today I stopped these guys from stealing this car, and then there were these muggers I fought!" The voicemail continued, and Tony hummed, pleased. "The car was really fancy, it looked a lot like my classmate Flash's car, except I wrecked his so it couldn't have been." Peter droned on. His voice was strangely comforting, even though his voice was high-pitched from excitement. "All the guys I fought today were super easy to beat. And then this guy gave me a burrito for free, it wasn't spicy at all, which sucked because I like spicy..."

"F.R.I.D.A.Y., note that Peter likes spicy foods," Tony mumbled, then cracked open the eye he didn't realize he closed.

"Wait, what did he say about cars?" The A.I. ignored him.

"F.R.I.D.A.Y., did he say he wrecked someone's car?" Tony groaned in partial amusement, the last of the lingering terror of his dream fading. "Make sure I remember that he needs driving lessons." Tony huffed.

"Oh god, teaching Peter to drive would be a nightmare," he said, but a smile tugged at his lips.

The voicemail continued and Tony's eyes slipped shut again.

There was light shining in his eyes. Tony groaned.

"Good morning," A female voice said, and Tony felt someone kiss his forehead. "I see you slept on the couch again. you know your back hates that."

Tony smiled despite himself as he opened his eyes and looked at Pepper.

"I know," he groaned, sitting up and grimacing. He glanced around. What was he doing last night...?

"Reminder from last night that Peter likes spicy food and that he needs driving lessons," F.R.I.D.A.Y. dutifully reminded, and Tony remembered.

"Who's car did he wreck?" He asked his A.I., but her response was unsatisfactory.

"There is no one named 'Flash' in any of Peter's classes. It must be a nickname of some kind."

"Well, look for him." Tony rubbed his face and stood up. He headed towards the kitchen, where Pepper was, and caught sight of the clock. He paused, surprised.

9 a.m.

Tony had slept for another 6 hours. Possibly a world record for time spent asleep.

"Wow," he said to himself quietly. He had never fallen asleep so quickly after a nightmare before. It seemed almost magical. He sat there for a moment, momentarily struggling with what he was about to do next, before giving up.

"F.R.I.D.A.Y., next time I'm having a nightmare, just pull up those voicemails," he said, admitting defeat. They worked like a charm, for a reason Tony refused to study closely. And besides, they were addressed to him, so he should be able to choose when to listen to them, he tried to justify to himself.

"What voicemails?" Pepper asked from the other room, and Tony grinned widely, heading towards her.

"You know that kid you're going to meet today? Spider-man?"


End file.
